Jim Lauderdale, Mr. Americana
The AMA Festival and Conference is a lot more than just listening to great music. It’s also about talking about music in the hallways of the convention center, at the clubs, on the streets walking to the clubs, and everywhere in between. On the musical knowledge level, the caliber of people who attend the conference is very high; you can tell a story without having to explain who Harold Bradley or Let’s Active are, and not only are they right there with you, chances are they have a good story related to your story about Charlie Louvin, or Van Morrison, or whoever. By chance, I met Hank DeVito, and he doesn’t have to explain to me that he’s was Emmylou Harris’ steel guitarist in her first band, we’re there already, and I know what songs he wrote and have just about everything he’s ever played on. As it turns out he’s the only other person I’ve ever met who remembers a little gig the Hot Band did at a racetrack in Calistoga. We were both thrilled to recall the memory, and I had a new story to pass along. My point is that there’s a lot that goes on that’s not on the schedule, and there’s an amazing collection of people who attend the AMA’s.
Amanda Shires
Each day there are an assortment of panels that go on downstairs at the convention center, covering a variety of topics from production, promotions and touring for musicians to using Twitter and Facebook, to where the music and the industry is headed in the future. My favorites were “The State of Americana Radio”, “Leveraging The Internet”, and “The Future of Music Writers and Publications,” and I always hear about panels that I missed that were great and there is always stimulating talks in the room following the panels.
The Festival also helps to promote many outside events, frequently put together by record labels. The Six Shooter Records and Starfish Entertainment lunch at a bar down on Broadway called the Second Fiddle was a nice little event, for example; their artists performed during the lunch and they sounded great together even though they were all solo artists. Oh Susanna, Luke Doucet, Amelia Curran and Kendal Carson all sounded awesome; they wisely cranked up the sound because we all like to talk just as much as we like to eat and drink. Other notable events included Red Beet Records’s party at a nearby restaurant with lots of local East Nashville artist and Compass Records’s open house at their offices on Music Row, where Bearfoot sounded amazing playing without mics in the studio upstairs, with Compass co-owner Allison Brown on banjo. Like the South By Southwest festival, the parties, whether sponsored or not, are a wonderful extra feature.
James Intveld
Friday night, you can tell it’s the weekend in Nashville because the clubs are full of more non-AMA fans and they’re sometimes a little more “dressed up for going out” the the usual AMA attendee. This isn’t to say that we don’t know how to look good, but by the third night of staying up past 2AM, I’ve lost a little spring to my step, and my best snap-button shirts have already been worn. I caught young newcomer AMANDA SHIRES at the Basement; she impressed me more than hearing her recently released CD, which is sometimes the whole idea of seeing the artist live. Hank’s granddaughter HOLLY WILLIAMS had the opposite effect on me, although to be fair, I only heard three songs. In particular her cover of “Angel From Montgomery” just didn’t strike me as a good choice; it’s not that it’s not a great song, but it’s just so associated with BONNIE RAITT, or even writer JOHN PRINE, that I feel it’s not wise for an established artist.
Intfeld crooning
JAMES INTVELD was another story. The hard country singer was bumped from the other night when Fogerty hogged the stage to Friday at The Cannery, and he told me he had to teach a whole new band— including backup singers —his songs because of the change. You wouldn’t have known it, though, as the handsome singer commanded the band and the stage through a dynamic set of songs that was some of the best music I heard all week. Upstairs later, RADNEY FOSTER sounded really good, which convinced me to go back and listen to his new Revival album again, as well as a few of his other older albums. He’s an artist who been delivering the goods for years and strongly supports the AMA. Back downstairs, SAM BUSH who’s, well, Sam Bush: always funny and entertaining, and musically smoking hot. He got pulled over on his way to the gig, which was a source of great amusement.
J.D. Souther
Songwriting great J.D SOUTHER tried to get the Mercy crowd to shut up for his first couple of songs, with some success, but sorry J.D., it’s a bar: we’re going to talk. One couldn’t help but pause, however, to hear him sing “Best of My Love,” “You’re Only Lonely,” and other brilliant songs that he wrote. By the time the NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND came on later, I was losing most of my steam. They sounded pretty good, but the locals were filling up the Cannery and in back, consistently, year after year, it has the worst sound of all the clubs. The bigger the club, it seems, the worse the sound, mostly due to un-twangy sound mixers. The smallest club, the Basement, has the best mixers and some of best rocking, cultish bands. I missed both Daddy and new band Elliott Brood at the little club (which is underneath Grimey’s, the best record store in town) but from what I heard around, both turned in great sets. Dragging our tails, a few of us DJ-types hopped into the rental car to head to our various places to rest, restore the batteries, and prepare for the last day tomorrow.
The conference offically opened this afternoon at the Nashville Convention Center, although no panels were scheduled, there was a whole night of music scheduled at the 5 AMA clubs, including a strong rumor of JOHN FOGERTY planning a surprise set at The Mercy Lounge, the smaller of the two clubs that share the same building. The other, larger room is the Cannery Ballroom, which was doing a whole night of Austin artists including SETH WALKER, who was quite good in a soulful bluesy sort of way, and ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL, who are just always great, in a boogie woogie western swing way.
It is customary for AMA Showcase evening shows to limit each artist to a 45 minute set, no matter what, encore or not. Well, either Mr. Fogerty didn’t get the memo or the AMA let him slide, nevertheless he did an almost and hour and a half set. I thought the new songs were great and would’ve liked a few more of those and a few less CCR classics. But I can’t say I wasn’t singing along like everyone else to “Down On The Corner” and “Born On The Bayou.” I especially loved a few surprise selections like “Night Time Is the Right Time” and ”Big Train From Memphis” which particularly cooked. Nashville’s PETER COOPER has a nice 
It was off in another drenching downpour to The Basement, the smallest AMA club but the room that usually has some of the best music. In this case, it was THE TEJAS BROTHERS, a fine quartet let by accordian player DAVID PEREZ, their Tex-Mex with a dash of Bakersfield was nothing less than excellent. A great band and a perfect way to end the first night at the AMA’s. Much more to come including the big awards show tomorrow night at the Ryman.
